Australian Authorities nab woman who bought drugs using bitcoin on the dark web.

A 32-year-old woman has been arrested and charged after being accused of buying drugs from the “dark web” using Bitcoin. The Australian federal authorities indicted her after the shipments were seized by the border authorities.

The woman based in Brisbane was apprehended after purchasing the illegal drugs from the United Kingdom has appeared in court, she faced 15 counts of illegal drug importation and trafficking charges.

The Australian authorities who handled the case alleged that the suspect used cryptocurrency to order, pay and coordinated the shipment of different type of the illicit drugs through a dark web portal.

Dark Web is a term that refers specifically to a collection of websites that exists on an encrypted network and cannot be found using traditional search engines or using traditional browsers. Most sites on the Dark Web hide their identity using the Tor encryption tools.

Speaking on the arrest, Australian Border Force’s regional commander for Queensland, Terry Price made clear that the Australian security agencies are aware and actively monitoring most activities taking place on the Dark Web. “Through close collaboration with our law enforcement partners we are able to detect imports purchased through these sites,” he explained.

The illegal drug importation was first detected when the Australian authorities discovered a small amount of MDMA in a parcel meant for the suspect’s home address last year December. A few weeks later on January 4, another package containing Fentanyl was also discovered from a U.K address. After series of investigations, other illicit drugs like of MDMA (Ecstacy), LSD, Oxycodone and Dimethylthyltrytamine (DMT) was discovered and seized in her apartment.

Bitcoin is plagued by a bad reputation; it is seen as the preferred currency for use in online drug trades since transactions on its network are majorly anonymous. Recently, EUROPOL, EU’s cybercrime watchdog busted a ring of drug dealers in Ireland who tried to launder their illegal money using bitcoin.

Salomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.